Environmental Sustainability/Water
How hard can it be to carry water? A Demonstration
Photo: Paul Jeffrey/ACT-CWS |
(15 minutes)
The daily challenge to find safe water preoccupies over a billion people each day. Often the water is far away, requiring hours of labor to make the round trip. As the task often falls to girls, the chore prevents them from attending school. This demonstration gives a glimpse into this difficult and physically demanding daily task.
Materials needed
- Containers: one-gallon milk jugs or five-gallon containers with lids (for example, buckets used to hold paint or joint compound).
- Water: Water weighs eight pounds per gallon. Use an amount appropriate to your group. For children under age eight, use one-gallon jugs. For ages 8-12, use two one-gallon jugs. For ages 12-15, use one five-gallon container. For people 16 years and older, use two five-gallon containers.
- If doing this activity indoors, have some towels or a mop nearby in case of a spill.
Preparation
- Gather your water containers (see above).
- Set up a race course in a playground, field, CROP Hunger Walk rest stop, or a large room.
Procedure
- If the challenge is done by individuals, have them carry the container over a short circular course – say 30 or 40 feet. If it is to be done by a group, divide your group into two equal teams and line them up behind a starting line.
- Give the first person on each team a container filled with water.
- When you say start, they should race around the course, carrying the water by hand. At the end of the course have them give the container to the next person. Continue until each has had a turn.
Discussion
- How did it feel to carry the water?
- How far do you think you could carry that water? (Point out that millions of people, mostly women and girls, have to do this every day – often for miles.)
- How much water do you think it would take to fill your family’s daily needs? (On average, a person living in sub-Saharan Africa uses 3 to 5 gallons a day, while someone living in the USA uses 100-150 gallons a day.)
- How would your life change if you had to fetch all your family’s water each day? (For many of the world’s poorest people, being forced to carry water means being exposed to danger or injury, often missing out on an education, and being limited in the sorts of crops they can grow.)
(Adapted from “How Hard Can It Be to Carry Water?” activity from Rx for Survival – A Global Health Challenge. Used by permission. ©/™ 2005 WGBH Educational Foundation and Vulcan Productions, Inc.)